Sometimes in the city

Sometimes on spring days in the city, when the sun comes out for just a day, the patio tables at every cafe within walking distance fill up and people buy Starbucks coffee not because they want it, but so they can claim a chair in the glow.

Friday was one of those days, and everyone else seemed to share my sneaky idea of taking a late lunch break and snagging a table as lunchers headed back to the office.

I finally spotted a newly-vacated table and sprinted across the street to take it. The only problem was, I didn’t have anything from the cafe. If I left the table, it would get taken.
If I left my book to claim the table, someone might just take that!

I scribbled a note on a blank envelope and went inside to get an iced tea.

When I came out, there was a red-headed, well-dressed young man lounging in the chair across from me. He smiled and said casually, “I thought we could share.”

I found it amusing and since tables were scarce, I shrugged and let him stay. I read my book and he ate his sandwich, and we parted without even knowing each other’s names.

Sometimes in the city, you work a short walk from Living Social’s headquarters, and you get to meet friends at their five-story, exposed-brick hipster building for a tea tasting.

Tea tasting? I’d never heard of such a thing, but it was wonderful. We learned more about tea than I thought there was to know.

We sampled Genmaicha green tea (my new favorite — did you know toasted rice used to bulk up tea leaves to make tea cheaper?), oolong, earl gray, ceylon and camomile. They even taught us how to pair food with tea: savory with green tea, sweet with black.

And as we left, they loaded us up with samples. Needless to say, I’ve been drinking tea nonstop ever since.

Sometimes in that same city, on your way back from tea tasting, you walk by the White House. And even though you’ve lived in the city for almost two years, you still have to stop and admire the park grounds and the romantic architecture, and marvel again that you live in the nation’s capital.

Please excuse the lack of pictures — I had some technical difficulties uploading them this morning, but I’ll fix it after work! 

Encounters With Reality

We had one of those weekends you remember for a long time afterward because of sweet sudden glimpses of eternity that make ordinary things more beautiful.

We went swing dancing at a 100-year-old fairground that still looks like it did in the 1930s, with a live band playing Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald songs. We took a walk around the fairground in the warm evening quiet, where we could still hear the live music from inside the ballroom.

I cuddled babies and kissed sweet baby toes, which always leaves me feeling refreshed and content with life. Those hours in the nursery at church reminds me of the reality of life, community, and love, which are more real even than the important work of politics, farming, journalism and business because the first are eternal and the second are passing away. Those babies are human souls who, Lord willing, will grow up to love Jesus and enter into the community of the church as we wait for Jesus to come back.

We had dinner with a friend who is getting married this summer, and as we looked back over a year of marriage and talked about engagement and being newlyweds, I was so very conscious of how lucky I am and how blessed we are. Marriage between two Christians is such a powerful testament to the unselfish love of Christ for his bride.

Speaking of eternity, I was so encouraged recently by what a wiser journalist told me about why our job is important in its way: "The Bible says the darkness cannot stand the light, and that’s why I am a journalist: to shed light on darkness."

That thought helps me invest in my work and see how to work as unto the Lord, and not to men — to see the eternal in what is passing away.

To be happy at home, as Johnson said, is the end of all human endeavor. As long as we are thinking only of natural values we must say the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him; and that all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, save insofar as they prolong and multiply such scenes, are a mere ploughing the sand and sowing the ocean… the society into which the Christian is called at Baptism is not a collective but a Body. It is in fact that Body of which family is an image on the natural level. — C.S. Lewis, Membership

April is the best month

I can hardly believe it, but last weekend was our first anniversary already. We spent a beautiful, leisurely weekend in Williamsburg, with perfect weather and no agenda except to see whatever we felt like seeing and eat at a tavern.

The colonial town had a special that turned our day passes into passes good through the end of the year, so we took our time and didn’t feel any pressure to see everything. We did tour the governor’s palace, the capitol building and the armory. We also ate at Chowning’s Tavern, and were serenaded by a guitar player while we ate.

The governor’s palace has an amazing English garden. I wish I had a picture, but I didn’t have my phone with me, and was too preoccupied with the abundance of tulips to borrow Bryant’s phone. But you understand when you see these, don’t you?

We ended the weekend with a long lunch on the patio of a cheese shop just outside the colonial town, with a cheese plate and some Virginia wine. It was perfect. You can picture us sitting out in the sunshine here.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate one year of marriage to the kindest, funniest and most charming of husbands. It’s hard to believe it was a whole year ago we were making silly faces in the Puerto Rican jungle to celebrate a few days of marriage. Well, he makes the faces and I laugh at them.

A pleasant surprise

What a pleasant surprise last week to find E. Henry had nominated me for a Liebster blog award! The point of the award is simple: directing more readers to blogs with fewer than 200 followers. I answer some questions about myself, then nominate other blogs I think should have more readers.

Eleven Random Facts about Michal 

1. I’m a journalist, which is one of the best jobs I can think of.

2. I love vegetables. There’s a giant bag of kale in my fridge right now, along with turnips, parsnips, avocados, tomatoes, cabbage and carrots.

3. I own two horses, a warmblood and an Arabian, and love riding.

4. I trained a horse to carry a rider, and after 3 trial-and-error years she turned out fantastic.

5. I am training for a half marathon. This will be the fourth time I’ve trained, but only the first time I’ve run — I’m excited to actually finish the race!

6. I am a hippie when it comes to food. I love things natural and local. Like an episode of Portlandia.

7. I am the oldest of four and have three brothers.

8. I eat chocolate every day.

9. My favorite author is C.S. Lewis.

10. I am a country girl, but I love working in the city.

11. My name is actually a woman’s name. In Hebrew it’s the feminine version of Michael, and it was the most popular girls’ name in Israel when I was born.

Eleven Random Questions Given from Emily, via Iris

If there was one place in the world you would travel, where would it be? It depends on the day you ask, but today, Paris.

Have you yet mastered the art of parallel parking? Oh no. But I can teach you how to parallel park like a pro.

What is your favorite word? So much of a word’s beauty comes from its being perfect in context, but I love the hints of the eternal in the word delight

What is your favorite season of the year and why? Summer; I love the sunlight, heat, picnics, fresh berries, iced coffee and how long every day feels.

What are you looking forward to doing most this summer? Riding again, and hopefully going to a training show; running that half marathon; going to farmer’s markets.

What is your favorite quote or words of wisdom?  “As I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Coffee or tea? Coffee in the morning, and tea for the rest of the day.

What is the last movie you watched? It’s been a long time; I don’t remember! I watch Dr. Who, 30 Rock and White Collar, though.

If there is one person in the world (living) whom you aspire to be like, who would it be?  Impossible to choose just one, but none are famous to any but their family and friends.

What/who/where is your inspiration for writing? The idea that reality is so much greater, wilder and more gloriously beautiful than it usually appears here on earth.

What is your favorite thing to do with your family? Read and play games.

Here are a few blogs I think deserve many more readers. (I’ve erred on the side of caution to not pick blogs that are primarily for personal updates.)

Sweet Tooth Mama is baking a cake a week this year, and I can’t wait to visit in June to hold the sweet-tooth baby while she bakes me a cake!

At Run the Earth and Watch the Sky, some poetry that will ignite your deepest longings.

Heidi has some delightful advice on cooking, homemaking and other fun projects.

Rachel B. Duke shares some lovely words of wisdom.

Sunshine, the cure for everything.

It may be Spring, but the weather here certainly doesn’t seem to know it. Last time this year, it was already getting hot and sticky; this year the thermometer has broken 50 once since winter started. We’re even supposed to get a dusting of snow this weekend.

Lately the sun has been making a valiant effort, though. Occasionally I sneak downstairs to the Starbucks around the corner as an excuse to hear the birds and feel a hint of sunshine on my face.

As I neared the end of the workday this afternoon, I could barely keep my eyes open. And that was after a strong cup of black tea. I decided the answer was fresh air, and braced for the breezy cold that just won’t go away.

Imagine my happy surprise when I walked out into a vibrantly sunny spring afternoon. It was just warm enough that I could stroll for a few blocks and enjoy sun so bright I wished I had my sunglasses.

At Barcode, a crowd of off-duty K Street execs stood around the sidewalk tables at Barcode, the first time they’ve been open since I started working downtown two months ago.

I even opened my arms wide and closed my eyes in the middle of the sidewalk; I’m sure I looked a little like Maria in The Sound of Music singing her way to the Von Trapp home.

On my way inside, I took advantage of Starbucks’ hazelnut macchiato promotion and snapped a picture of the Washington Examiner sign from inside. I can’t wait until it feels as warm as it looks outside! I’m so ready for Spring.